1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an internal combustion engine which includes a cylinder head and a cylinder block, with a crankcase being fixed to the cylinder block, and with at least one mass balancing shaft being held in the crankcase, with at least one bearing bore for the mass balancing shaft being formed by a flanged bush which is fixed in the region of a face side of the crankcase, especially screwed onto the same.
2. The Prior Art
It is known to arrange the cylinder head and the cylinder block as a unit. Such head-cylinder-block units are also known as monoblocs. An integral crankcase is usually adjacent to the head-block unit. Furthermore, internal combustion engines with multi-part crankcases are known, with one crankcase part and bearing bracket for the crankshaft bearing being cast together into one piece. This component is also known as “bed plate”. In the case of monobloc internal combustion engines, individual bearing blocks with individual bearing brackets were used up until now in order to enable the necessary accessibility for machining the cylinder bores.
An internal combustion engine with cylinder head and cylinder block is known from GB 2 425 570 B, with the cylinder head and the cylinder block being integrally arranged.
An internal combustion engine with a crankcase structure is known from JP 3-185220 A, in which a mass balancing shaft is held in a flanged bush. The integral mass balancing shaft is inserted through an opening on the face side. The diameter of the flange is larger than the diameter of the weights of the mass balancing shaft. A similar arrangement is known from US 2007/261657 A.
It is known to hold mass balancing shafts in the crankcase. In particular in the case of monobloc internal combustion engines it is relatively difficult to machine the bearing of the mass balancing shaft in the head-block unit or in the crankcase.
It is the object of the invention to reduce the amount of machining work in an internal combustion engine of the kind mentioned above.